Typed up at: East West Medical Center in Delhi Posted from: Hotel Vivek
in Delhi
We came to
Bharatpur to see the birds in Keoladeo Ghana National Park, and that’s
exactly what we did. We stayed at the Falcon Guest House, which was
cheap, had awesome sheets, and a very friendly proprietor. At the park
entrance we hired Baney Singh (9414344149) to be our guide. He was
excellent, pointing out lots of things that we would have missed, and
readily identified every bird we saw.
Over the
course of 3 days we saw about 70 different species of birds, as well as
deer, antelope, turtles, jackals, and we glimpsed a pair of pythons. The
days felt very relaxed, waking up early, having breakfast, and watching
birds for 4-6 hours. Then we’d relax in the afternoon. Some of my
favorite sights were the huge amount of nesting painted storks. They
would all come in to feed their young at the same time, and then take
off to collect more food. We saw a carnivorous turtle swimming about and
chasing away some of the birds. The white-throated kingfisher is super
colorful, as is the flame-backed woodpecker.
Almost the
last thing we saw was a cow corpse covered in crows. Then a steppe eagle
circled down, scattering the crows, and landing on the corpse. Its
wingspan was at least as big as the dead cow. Also watching were several
Egyptian vultures (which the crows kept away), until a dog came and
claimed the corpse. We saw lots, and I really enjoyed the entire time we
spent in the park.
One
afternoon Baney took me on his motorcycle to the train station to buy
tickets for the next leg. I’d never ridden on one before, and it just
struck me how ridiculously dangerous it felt to be riding on the
backseat of a motorcycle with no helmet, with traffic rules basically
non-existent, and all manner of vehicles passing each other very closely
from unexpected directions. It’s no wonder people use their horns so
much here. It’s impossible to keep track of everything that’s going on
around you if you can’t make any assumptions about where there will and
won’t be any traffic.
